Let’s Say “Bonjour” To Louis Le Français

I know this may seem an odd thing to say about an eatery in New Albany, but it’s true: A visit to Louis Le Français comes surprisingly close to dining in France.

How authentic is it? Here’s how: I decided to give my limited language skills a workout by ordering a dish in French. “I’ll have the Crêpes aux Epinards, please,” I chirped, properly gargling my Rs and liaisoning the preposition so it came out something like “Khwehpp O’Zehpeenagghh.” I beamed, anticipating high praise for my tourist-French accent.

But you’ll never need to worry about Parisian snootiness at Louis Le Français, where the staff – French-bred and Hoosier-born alike – is courteous and as friendly as you’d expect at a dining room in an Indiana town.

Louis Le Français simply means “Louie the Frenchman,” and you’ll find the namesake owner-chef, Louis Retailleau, turning out delicious country French fare in a bright, sunny-color venue where both the food and the mood come strikingly close to matching his native Provençe.

Louis Le Français is open for lunch and dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays and for brunch on Sundays. The lunch menu keeps things simple with a short list of soup or salad ($) and four Plats Principaux (“main dishes”) from $8 for the sandwich du jour to $10 for Ragout de Boeuf, a French beef and vegetable stew, plus desserts. I want to go over soon for Sunday brunch, which is served from a menu, not a buffet, and includes about a dozen choices, with everything under $10 except Louis’s house cured pork belly bacon and eggs ($13) or Michel’s crêpe ($10).

The dinner menu, with main courses from $17 to $27, is revised frequently. On the summery evening of our visit, we started out cool with a bowl of chilled gazpacho ($4), a summer soup of gently spicy pureed tomatoes, bell peppers and other good things. The aforementioned Crêpes aux Epinards ($4) was a pair of small, tender crêpes wrapped like ravioli around finely chopped spinach and sauced with a light velouté scented with herbes de Provençe. Lengths of crusty baguette with butter curls were served alongside.

Main dishes were fine, too: Two slices of tender, very mild lamb ($27) were served with its jus and a ration of herb-sprinkled rice. The ratatouille ($17) was an excellent rendition, chunks of eggplant, zucchini and tomato long-simmered with herbs until the flavors swam together, placed in a circle around a modest mound of rice.

Getting mighty full, we still gave in to dessert and were glad we did: Crème Brûlée ($7) was made in classic
fashion, with a crackling caramelized surface over a thin layer of creamy custard studded with deep melted chocolate surprises.

A full dinner with apps, mains, a shared dessert, a good value bottle of Bouchard Pinot Noir ($26) and coffee ($2) came to $95.23, a toll that wouldn’t be out of line at a bistro on Bardstown Road – or in Provençe. First-rate service in both French and English earned a $20 tip.

Coming event: According to a recent post on the restaurant’s Facebook page, Louis has big plans for a day-long event to mark Bastille Day (July 14, which happily falls on a Saturday this year) with French fare and entertainment for all! Keep an eye on their page for more details.